And those on the Political Left like the show because it allows them to complain about President Bush's cavalier attitude and call Bush the Jack Bauer of American presidents, as if this hurts his feelings. However, they conveniently forget something equally important: Two of their favorite fantasy programs, "The West Wing" and "Commander in Chief" (the Hillary Clinton infomercial starring Geena Davis) are miserable flops.

"The Left Wing" has already been canceled. The "Geena Clinton" show is probably next, although it stars Kiefer's father, Donald Sutherland, as an evil, back-stabbing conservative. He's a fine actor because in real life he's no Republican and condemned the Bush White House for the Iraq war and handling of Hurricane Katrina.

We watch spellbound as he relentlessly pursues the enemies of the United States with a frightening determination and dedication that brooks no opposition from friend or foe. His disputes with the national security bureaucracy are fought with the same tenacity and brutal win-at-all-costs mindset with which he battles the terrorists seeking to destroy us. In this respect, Bauer is a man outside the law rather than someone of the law.

Slavoj Zizek writes in yesterday's Guardian that the message of the TV series, that torturers can retain their human dignity if the cause is right, is a profound lie:

In the fourth season, Jack Bauer agrees to be delivered to China as a scapegoat for a CTU covert operation that killed a Chinese diplomat. He knows he will be tortured and imprisoned for life but promises not to say anything that might damage US interests. When he is informed by the ex-president of the US that someone has ordered him to be killed, his two closest CTU friends fake his death. Both terrorist and CTU agents operate as examples of what the political philosopher Giorgio Agamben calls homo sacer - someone who can be killed with impunity since, in the eyes of the law, their life no longer counts. While they continue to act on behalf of the legal power, their acts are no longer constrained by the law. It is here that we encounter the series' ideological lie: in spite of the CTU's ruthlessness, its agents, especially Bauer, are warm human beings - loving, caught in the emotional dilemmas of ordinary people.